Crossovers
by Megalink1126
Summary: Because when it comes to the world within the game, there's more than just one story to be told. A spin-off of MrMissMrs Random's fic, Game Freaks.
1. To Lands Unknown Part 1

**Before we begin, let's get some technicalities out of the way first, yes? First of all, despite its title, this is not a 'crossover' fic in terms of what has defined a 'crossover' fic as. There is no merging of characters, places, or other things that go into crossovers from another category. What this title is referring to shall be explained later.**

**Also, please note that this is a spin-off series of another fic on this site, **_**Game Freaks**_**, written by MrMissMrs Random. I have been granted permission by said author to use her ideas and characters. These chapters are all looked over by said author before being posted to make sure that nothing conflicts with the timeline already set in place, if not fully revealed yet, for **_**Game Freaks. **_**And just like **_**Game Freaks**_**, this story also contains some harsh language used by the characters, albeit probably not to as much as an extent. Either way, you have been warned.**

**And finally, the usual disclaimer. I own nothing concerning Pokémon, its characters, ideas, and anything else relating to that. Basically, to sum this all up, I own absolutely nothing. Thank you for reading my insane bantering, if you're even bothering to read it and not just skipping down to the story, and enjoy chapter one of **_**Crossovers.**_

* * *

><p>This was it. After months of working his butt off, pulling late-night shifts, extensively training his Pokémon, and just a tad bit of whining and complaining, it was finally time. In just a few short hours, his dream of finally scouting out a completely new area would finally come true.<p>

He could hardly contain his excitement. Just to think, it was a new region! Or at least, one that had never been explored before by any of their Agents. But still, just thinking about it made his blood boil and his heart start to race. New challenges! New Pokémon! New chances to show his worth to the higher ups! And what better way than to help set up the first base in this new land? No doubt he would become a Commanding Agent in a heartbeat, and from there, who knew? It was all just a matter of time.

Indeed, in just a few short hours, he would land, and then—

"Jason, could you please _shut the fuck up?_"

…It was just a pity he was stuck with having to baby sit three girls that the higher ups had sent with him.

"Seriously Jason, if you don't stop going on and on about how you're the best person to ever walk the face of this earth and how you're so excited about getting to Unova, I swear I'm going to throw your sorry butt overboard and laugh as you're eaten alive by Sharpedo."

That was Irene. Back before she had been sucked into this world, Jason knew that she had been a cheerleader, and had apparently been on a team or whatever that had won a bunch of competitions. Not that cheering really helped much in being an Agent. Out of everyone Jason knew, she was probably the most fashion-conscious Agent not only in the little exploration group, but out of the entire secret division of Game Freaks. It was no doubt a side effect from her being brainwashed by her cheerleader friends back in the old world. She also considered herself to be a bit of a matchmaker, although not a very good one in Jason's opinion.

"I don't think Sharpedo migrate this far away from Hoenn and Sinnoh," a black haired girl sitting close by commented, not once taking her eyes off of her sketchpad as she drew. "Besides, there doesn't seem to be as much fish in this area, at least from what I can tell. It probably has something to do with this area being close to a large-scale city. Sharpedo are big, and need lots of food in order to sustain themselves, and Hoenn and Sinnoh have plenty of Water-type Pokémon to keep them full without over hunting. Any carnivorous fish Pokémon out here would have to be smaller yet strong enough to devour any food they come by."

She was Adelaide, a rather quiet girl who Jason believed was from the Philippines. She would even occasionally speak in Tagalog, which was apparently some sort of language spoken over there. She could usually be seen doodling in one of her sketchbooks, and from what few pictures of hers that Jason had seen, he figured she was a pretty good artist.

Irene huffed and crossed her arms. "Well, I guess we'll just have to hope that whatever's lurking down there will eat him. But then again, this is Jason we're talking about. He'd probably get spit out halfway through the feeding fest and give the poor things indigestion."

"Could we _please _not talk about eating right now?" a third girl mumbled, who was bent over the railing on the side of the ship the four of them were on. Jason couldn't see her face, as her shoulder-length blonde hair was obscuring it from his vision, but he could tell from her voice that she was feeling pretty sea sick.

That was Hanna, the fourth and final member of the exploration group Jason was in. Officially, she had been assigned as the leader of their little expedition, but in reality that didn't mean too much. Yeah, she would put her foot down if things got out of hand, but for the most part, Hanna really wasn't too strict. And if he couldn't be in charge of this little team of misfits, Hanna was the next best choice in Jason's opinion. Arceus help him if somehow Irene ever led a mission he was in.

"Well I'm sorry for being a little excited to finally be going on this mission," Jason said, determined not to let Irene ruin his good mood. "Just think, pretty soon we—"

The three girls were spared Jason going into another excited rhetoric by the sound of a loud bell from the intercom system, followed by the voice of the captain of the boat.

"_Attention passengers, we will be arriving in Castelia City in approximately twenty minutes. Please collect all of your belongings from your cabins and prepare to dock. Thank you for choosing Unova Cruise Line for your travels and have a nice day._"

"'Bout damn time," Hanna muttered as Jason punched the air and Irene rolled her eyes at him. Jason then proceeded to run to the front of the ship, and, with his right hand shading his eyes, he scanned the waters in front of him for his first glimpse of the infamous Unova Region.

A few seconds later, Jason ran back over to the girls, his eyes wide with excitement.

"Guys, you gotta see this!"

Hesitantly, the girls followed, Irene helping to support Hanna as the four of them made their way to the prow of the ship. There, directly in front of them, Castelia City could clearly be seen as they quickly approached it. Even from the distance they were at, it was obvious that it was no small-time city. Skyscrapers dominated the skyline, standing solidly hundreds of feet into the air. As they got closer, they could make out other details as well, such as some of the flashing lights of signs and billboards scattered all over the city. Even the docks were huge. Hundreds of ships were entering, leaving, or were just docked in the ports, and that was just from what Jason could see.

"Wow," Irene said, her eyes wide. Next to her, Adelaide was sketching furiously in her book, and simply nodded, too focused to do anything else. "It almost reminds me of a city back in our world. Except for, you know, everything having a Pokémon theme to it."

"Welcome to the Unova Region, guys," Hanna said weakly, before promptly leaning over the edge of the railing and noisily losing her lunch.

* * *

><p>"I don't think I've ever been more excited to be on dry land before in my life," Hanna groaned. After their boat had docked, the four Agents had quickly made their way onto the waterfront, where they had stopped to let Hanna sit on a bench and recover from her sea sickness. Next to her, Adelaide was gently fanning her with her sketchpad, not really sure what else she could do. Irene had gone off to look for something that might help settle Hanna's stomach, and Jason, well…<p>

"This place is so freakin' awesome!" Jason exclaimed, completely focused on the city instead of his comrade. "The lights! The people! It's unlike anything I've seen in this world yet! This is so much better than boring old Dewford."

"Someone should really calm him down before he wets himself from excitement," Irene mumbled as she returned carrying four bottles of Soda Pop. She handed one each to Hanna and Adelaide. "Here. Hopefully that'll help."

"Thanks, Irene," Hanna said, holding the drink in her hands. "But really, I'm feeling better now. You didn't have to go track down something just for me…"

"Don't worry about it," Irene said, taking a sip from one of the two bottles she still was holding. "I was thirsty anyway, and it wasn't too hard to find a vending machine here. Hey!" she shouted at Jason, trying to get his attention. "Jason! You want this Soda Pop or do you just want to continue spazzing over there and making a complete idiot of yourself? If it's the latter, we don't know you, 'kay?"

Jason paused in his ogling, his grin drooping slightly from Irene's comment. "How come you guys aren't excited?" he asked, making his way back over to the girls and taking the final Soda Pop from Irene.

"We are excited, Jason," Adelaide said quietly. "It's just that we're a bit worried about Hanna right now, that's all."

"Really guys, I'm fine. I really don't feel that sick anymore. Honest," Hanna mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"Not to mention we don't want to look like a bunch of tourists and make fools of ourselves by jumping up and down like a bunch of excited little kids," Irene added. "Face it Jason, the three of us are all just a wee bit more mature than you are. Well, maybe a bit more than a 'wee.'"

For the first time that day, the smile fell from Jason's face as he glared at Irene. "What is this, Bag on Jason Day or something? It seems like every other word out of you is some sort of jab at me, Irene. You're acting like _Nathan_, except just a bit less emo."

Irene rolled her eyes. "_Please_. Emo Boy and I are _nothing_ alike. And if that's the best insult you can come up with, then you've got some work to do there, Jason. See, I haven't even been trying to rip on you. You'd know if I was. Trust me, I can be very good at trading insults."

Irene winked, before continuing. "The thing is, you're just getting on all of our nerves with your constant going on and on about the mission. You've gotten past the point of annoying the three of us to death, and since Hanna and Adelaide here are too nice to tell you the truth, I've got to do my part to bitch at you every chance I get until you cut it out or we strangle you just to get some peace and quiet."

"It's true," Adelaide mumbled, not looking Jason in the eye. "You have been pretty annoying lately, Jason."

"Could you at least try to tone it down a little bit?" Hanna asked. "You're a good guy Jason, don't get me wrong, but you can be pretty annoying when you get excited…"

Jason took a deep breath. In his old life, before he came to this world and met all of these people, he would have lashed out at comments like that. He would have seen them as nothing more than a bunch of idiotic bullies, and after arguing with them for a while, he would have stormed off to sulk. But things were different now. He had grown. He had learned how to deal with these things better. And these people here seemed to like him, which was more than he could say about some people in his old life. If they were saying he was being annoying…

He sighed. "Fine. I guess I could try to calm down a little bit…" he muttered.

"That's all we want," Hanna said, she and Adelaide now smiling at him.

"Great!" Irene said, clapping her hands together. "Glad we got that all straightened out. Hanna, Adelaide, you can thank me later, 'kay? And Jason? If you start acting like an annoying little boy again, I'm going to toss you in a dumpster."

Jason rolled his eyes and took a sip of his Soda Pop. _Yeah, right. I'd like to see you try._ Of course, he didn't voice his opinion out loud, as that would probably just lead to more arguing between him and Irene. "So, we all good now?"

"Sure," Hanna said, standing up from her bench and stretching a little. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a bit tired of sitting around. Let's go check out the city."

"Hanna…"Adelaide said, but Hanna waved her off.

"I told you, I'm fine," she insisted. "Come on, let's go exploring."

* * *

><p>"Hotdogs! Get yer hotdogs 'ere! We've got ev'ry toppin' ya'd eber want, 'cluding—"<p>

"Come visit the Castelia City Museum of Art! We've got paintings from artists all over the world, including Castelia's very own—"

"—off everything inside! Just go a few blocks down the street and you'll be sure to see it!"

"Excuse me sir, could I trouble you to take this survey? It will only take a few seconds."

It took Jason a moment to realize that the girl was talking to him. There were so many vendors trying to attract tourists to buy their product or go visit something or other that he didn't even realize the girl was talking to him until she poked his arm.

"Um, excuse me?" she said, looking up at him with her big, brown eyes. She looked to be around Jason's age, maybe just a bit older than him, and was wearing a pink visor and had a pad and paper, almost making her look like some kind of miniature reporter.

"Oh, um, sorry," Jason said, rubbing the back of his head. "Did you say something about a survey?"

"Yes!" she said, smiling sweetly at him. "You see, I'm a statistician from Passerby Analytics HQ, so I'm going around conducting a survey with various people all over Castelia. Would you mind me asking you a few questions?"

"A status-passing what?" Jason asked, completely unfamiliar with the mouthful of a title the girl had just thrown at him. "Um, sure?"

"Great!" the brown haired girl cheered. Flipping to another page in her pad, she said, "Okay, okay. First question. What region are you from?"

_Oh crap, _Jason thought as he tried to think of an answer. The easiest thing would be to say he was from Hoenn, as that was the region where he had first been sucked into, but his accent was an obvious giveaway that he didn't live anywhere near there. "Hm…that's a bit of a tough question," he said jokingly, appearing to think seriously about the survey question while he mentally began to kick himself to come up with somewhere, anywhere obscure that she probably wouldn't know about.

The girl giggled slightly. "You're pretty funny," she said, thinking Jason was just joking. "But really, where are you from?"

"Uh…Narnia," he said, blurting out the first thing that popped into his head, mentally kicking himself again. The girl tilted her head.

"I've never heard of a Narnia Region," she said. "Where is it?"

"Well…uh…"_Come on Jason, think! _"Uh…well, it's not really a region. It's more of a…town. Yeah. It's the town I'm from. And…uh…it's in the, uh…Oblivious Region? No wait! It's in the Oblivia Region! Yeah, that's what it's called!"

The girl's eyes narrowed slightly. "I see…" she said, jotting something down on her pad. Biting the end of her pen, she stared at Jason, as if studying him. Jason shifted uneasily, glancing around and trying not to look at her.

"And you're sure you're from this…" The girl looked down at her pad. "…town of Narnia in the Oblivia Region?"

"Well…"

"Jason! Stop flirting with that girl and get your ass over here!"

At Irene's shout, Jason turned beet red. He opened his mouth to shout something at Irene, but nothing came out. In front of him, the girl giggled. "I think your friend is calling for you."

"The…da…uh…yeah," Jason replied.

The girl smiled at him, and jotted down another thing on her pad. "Well, if you ever decide to tell me where you're really from, here's my Xtransceiver number. Maybe we could get something to eat and we could finish this survey, or something…"

Blushing slightly herself now, the girl ripped the sheet of paper she had been writing on from her pad and handed it to Jason. She then waved goodbye and walked away, leaving Jason to stare at the paper, dumbstruck.

"Hey! Jason!"

"Uh…right. Coming!" Jason shouted back to Irene. Stuffing the note in his pocket, he shoved his way through the crowd to the corner of the street, where Irene was looking at him smugly.

"Well, well, well," she said, smirking. "What was that all about Jason?"

"Nothing!" he said, a bit louder than necessary. As Irene's smirked got bigger, Jason stammered, "She…just, uh…wanted me to do this…uh, survey thing."

"So that's why she gave you her number, right?"

Jason stared at Irene, surprised. "What do…I mean, how did you know she gave me her number?" he asked.

Beside Irene, Hanna groaned. "Great. Just great. Thanks a lot, Jason."

Adelaide gave her a pat on the back. "I told you not to bet against Irene. She's too good at these kinds of things."

"But still, this is Jason we're talking about!" Hanna replied, hiding her face in her hands. "Who in their right mind would ever bet that he could score some random girl's phone number?"

"Hey!"

"Don't forget though, Hanna, that little Jason here _is_ in a relationship," Irene said, grinning. "I wonder what Kristie would think of all this." Irene winked at Jason. "After all, I don't think your _girlfriend_ would like it if she knew that you're going around and hitting on other girls, Jason."

"For the last time, Kristie is not my girlfriend!" Jason shouted, drawing the attention of a few passing by pedestrians. "She and I are just friends, alright? No matter what you, or Jayla, or Hanna, or anyone else says!"

"Trust me, you two are _totally_ a couple. No ifs, ands, or buts about it," Irene said, Hanna and Adelaide smiling and nodding in agreement.

Jason grumbled under his breath, too quietly for any of the girls to hear. "So, what do we do now that we finally made it here to Unova?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well…I guess we should explore the city a bit," Hanna answered, deciding to take pity on him and drop the Kristie thing. "Ade's already gotten a few sketches of the city drawn, so when we get the chance we should send those. And we should probably take a few photos while we're at it."

"I've got a camera in my bag," Adelaide said, motioning to the bag she was carrying on her shoulder. "So if you want, I could start taking some pictures…"

"That'd be great, Ade," Hanna said, patting Adelaide on the back.

"What do you want the rest of us to do, oh mighty leader?" Jason asked, bowing slightly and grinning at Hanna. Hanna just rolled her eyes.

"Well…I don't know. We could split up and go explore some of the city, or we could all get something to eat. I'm actually starting to get a bit hungry, haha. Or we could—"

"Blah, blah, blah," Irene said, cutting Hanna off. "You know something? This is the biggest fucking city I've ever seen in this world. You know what that means? We're going shopping. Now."

And with that, Irene grabbed Hanna's wrist, and began to drag the younger girl away from Jason and Adelaide, heading towards some promising looking stores a few blocks away.

"W-Wait! Irene!" Hanna cried, trying to loosen the death-grip the red head had on her.

"You lost the bet, remember?" Irene asked, winking back at Hanna. Hanna's shoulders slumped at the mention of their bet, and she sighed.

"…Fine," she mumbled.

"Adelaide, feel free to join us if you want to!" Irene shouted back to the other girl, before continuing to drag Hanna away. In a second they were swallowed by the giant crowds of people on the streets.

"Well," Jason said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "I guess that just leaves you and me, Adelaide."

"…Adelaide?"

Not hearing a response from the girl, Jason turned around and saw that she was no longer standing where she had been just moments before Irene had dragged Hanna off to her little shopping experience of doom. Whipping his head back and forth, he quickly scanned the crowds, and spied Adelaide walking down a street in the opposite direction that Irene and Hanna had just gone.

"Adelaide!" he shouted, trying to get her attention.

This time, Adelaide turned around, and waved at Jason. "I'm going to get a Casteliacone," she said, motioning to a small ice cream shop advertising said brand of ice cream. Jason could hardly see the signs though, as the line for the shop not only went out the door in front of the building, but also around the street corner a good forty feet or so away.

_Forget that, _Jason thought, having no desire to stand in a line that long just for some ice cream. "Good luck!" he called back.

With that, he turned and continued down the same street that their group of four had been walking down before going through the impromptu split.

_Guess I'm all by myself now…_

* * *

><p>"Alright, let's see here… Which way?" Jason mumbled to himself, glancing at the roads to his right and left. He had been wandering around Castelia aimlessly for about twenty minutes, taking in the sights and seeing if there was anything interesting for him to do to pass the time. After all, he needed to find something to keep him occupied while Irene was on her shopping spree.<p>

Plus, the fact that he was completely and utterly lost helped spur him onwards.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, he took the left path, hoping that it might take him back to a road he recognized. But then again, how was he supposed to know what street it was even if he did miraculously recognize it? This was a new city that he knew nothing about. He didn't even have a map! It could take him hours just to run into one of his teammates. And knowing his luck, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

_Well, so far, this isn't what I was expecting,_ Jason thought as he walked down his new path. There didn't seem to be too many people on this street. In fact, it looked more like an over glorified alleyway than anything. But he could still see that it opened up into a larger street a little ways ahead, where he could hopefully get some idea of where the heck he was. _I mean, I thought it was going to be like the games where you get to go out, catch a bunch of sweet new Pokémon, and kick anyone's butt who dares to challenge your mightiness. Instead, I'm lost in the middle of a city while Irene's off torturing Hanna and Adelaide is going to spend two more hours standing in line just for some stupid ice cream cone._

He sighed. _This would have been so much easier if I could have just come by myself. If I didn't have to wait for my teammates, I could be out on the nearest route, searching for new Pokémon that we haven't documented yet. And then once I got back, I could rub it in everyone's faces that I have these awesome new Pokémon that they've never seen before. Then maybe they'd see that I'm not some stupid kid anymore, and actually give me some respect. Especially if I beat up Nathan. Yeah, that'd be pretty sweet…_

"_Paaaaa…_"

_What the hell…? _Jason asked as he stopped in his tracks. To his right, where the growl had come from, was a much smaller alleyway. Or, more accurately, a little nook for a giant dumpster to sit in so it wouldn't be blocking the other alleyway too much.

At first, Jason thought he must have been mistaken. Nothing could have fit inside the alcove with the dumpster sitting there. But, even as he watched, two giant red orbs suddenly blinked into existence, almost seeming to glow in the shadows.

Jason jumped back in surprise, his hand falling to the Poké Balls at his belt. _What the hell is that?_

As he watched, the orbs seemed to shift around a little, sometimes focusing on him and sometimes focusing at something else in some other direction. They also seemed to flicker occasionally, randomly disappearing before popping into existence a second later.

Being the natural investigator that he was, it didn't take long for Jason to figure out what he was really looking at.

"They're eyes," he mumbled, "but not any kind that I've ever seen." Making up his mind, he grabbed one of the Poké Balls from his belt and held it up at face level, ready to throw it. "Alright. There's only one of them. No problem."

As luck would have it though, Jason was quickly proved wrong in his assumption that there was only one Pokémon hiding in the dark. As soon as he finished speaking, a second set of eyes appeared, quickly followed by a third. Then a fourth. And finally, a fifth.

_Crap_, Jason thought, tightening the grip on his Poké Ball. One he could probably take. Five mysterious enemies though? He didn't like his chances, especially in such a confined space.

"_Paaaaatraaaaaa…_"

At once, a cacophony of growls and squeaks erupted from the shadows, and Jason took an involuntary step back. The eyes seemed to be moving around more rapidly now, as if they were trying to confuse him. And then once they did, no doubt they would attack…

The final straw was the object that was flung out of the shadows. Jason never saw what it was. All he knew was that something came flying out of the dark, almost hitting him in the head, before bouncing against the wall behind him. At that, Jason took off running, not bothering to spare a glance back to see if he was being chased.

He burst out onto the busier road at a full sprint, almost running into a group of senior citizens. As it was, he barely avoided colliding with an old man, and instead ended up flinging himself to the right at the last moment, crashing into a garbage can and sprawling face-first onto the concrete walkway.

"Stupid hooligans," the old man muttered, whacking Jason on the head with his cane as he passed him, not even trying to help the boy up.

_Crazy old man, _Jason thought, sitting up and rubbing the spot where he had just gotten thumped.

If he had looked back at the alleyway, he could have seen a group of five Patrat happily rolling and tossing a battered old ball back and forth, enjoying playing with the new toy they had just found in the dumpster.

* * *

><p>After dusting himself off a little bit, Jason continued down the new street he was one, trying to distance himself from whatever demons that had almost attacked him in that alleyway and trying to see if he recognized anything from his earlier wanderings around the city to give him a clue as to where he was.<p>

Naturally, he didn't see anything remotely familiar.

Instead, as he continued to walk along, he noticed that up ahead the skyscrapers suddenly seemed to end, only to be replaced by…trees? Yes, those were trees. They were a bit hard to see what with the skyscrapers blocking most of them, but from what Jason could see the trees far too few and too evenly spaced to be natural.

The closer he got to the strange little cluster of plants, the more he could make out what it really was. It appeared to be some sort of square, circular in shape, with multiple streets branching off of it like spokes of a wheel. He couldn't tell much else about the little plaza though, as a giant crowd of people seemed to be gathered there, all intently focusing on something in front of them.

"What the heck's going on there?" Jason mumbled to himself, quickening his pace.

* * *

><p>Even as he got closer though, Jason couldn't see what all the people were staring at. There were just far too many of them, and despite his slightly taller-than-average height, he was just too far back to make out anything past all of the constantly shifting people who were also trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that was in the middle of the square. So Jason did the only thing he could do.<p>

"Coming through!" he shouted, barreling into the crowd, his arms flailing as he tried to push his way through. All around him people began to cry out indignantly at his rudeness, and some even began to push back. Now against one person, Jason could have easily made his way past. But a giant mob? He was thrown back out before he could even try to fight back, and for the second time that day, he ended up sprawled out on the cold, hard ground, a few quickly developing bruises to show for his efforts.

"Well, that didn't work," Jason muttered, sitting up and rubbing his elbow. Shifting his hand to his belt, he clasped one of his Poké Balls in his hand. "Time for plan B…"

In the middle of the plaza, his back to the crowd and facing a large, glistening water fountain, stood a rather…eccentric looking man. Pushing his bushy hair out of his eyes with his arm, he stared intently at the canvas in front of him, simply studying his creation. Then, with a flick of his hand, his brush flashed across the board, returned to the palette in his left hand, and then made a few more broad strokes across the canvas before pausing again.

"It is done!" he announced happily, turning around to face the crowd. In response, the throng gave a loud cheer, to which the man gave a broad wave.

"Thank you," the man chuckled, giving a little bow to his supporters. "And now for—"

From the crowd, a woman suddenly screamed. Many others were looking up to the sky and pointing, while a few farther away were frantically looking around, wondering where the sudden shriek had come from and if they should be concerned.

Curious, the man titled his head up to the sky, just in time to see a person falling right to him. The man's eyes only had time to widen slightly as the boy—or more accurately, the teenager—landed in front of him, a grin plastered to his face.

"Hah!" he said, turning around and sticking his tongue out to the crowd. Then, remembering why he had come there in the first place, the brown haired teen turned back around and looked at where he had landed.

"What the heck are you supposed to be?" the teen asked, his blue eyes taking in the strange man before him. He was wearing a green, long sleeved v-neck shirt with a white undershirt visible under that. But that was where the normalcy of his appearance ended. Below his shirt, he had a pair of pink and green vertically striped pants, and a belt with a large butterfly belt buckle. Even his shoes matched his pants, also being pink and green in color, making the teen vaguely wonder just where he had gotten such an ugly pair of sneakers. And if that wasn't enough, he also had a large pink scarf wrapped around his neck.

"I believe it's normal for visitors to introduce themselves first," the man replied, his droopy eyes staring right back at the teen, taking in his appearance. The teen was tall; even as tall as he was, and his hair even managed to add an inch or two to his height. Even so, he appeared to still be rather young, probably around fifteen or so. He was wearing a simple getup that easily told him that the teen was a Trainer of some sort. He had a long sleeved red shirt, brown board shorts, and a pair of black and red Running Shoes. Nothing too flashy, just a simple attire that was perfect for traveling.

"Name's Jason," the teen replied.

"Jason…" the man said, sounding thoughtful. "Tell me Jason, why did you decide to drop in on my little presentation?"

Jason shrugged. "I wanted to know what was going on, since I saw the crowd. But they wouldn't let me through to see, so I just used my Pelipper to fly over."

"_Pel__!_" the pelican circling in the sky above Jason called, drawing quite a few more stares to the odd bird.

"So anyway, who are you and what exactly are you doing that's so exciting?" Jason asked. "You're not a clown, are you? 'Cause you see, I don't really like clowns all that much, and you kind of look like one."

The man's eyes dropped a little lower. "My name is Burgh, and I was simply working on my latest piece of art when you rudely—"

"Art?" Jason asked, shoving past Burgh to look at the painting, much to the shock of the crowd. They began to yell at him, which Jason simply shrugged off as he studied the picture.

"…Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" Jason asked, turning around and staring at Burgh.

Burgh cocked an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

"Are you kidding?" Jason asked, grabbing the canvas and causing quite a few gasps to erupt from the crowd. "This thing looks like one of those stupid color by number pictures that's been scribbled in badly by a three-year-old."

At that, Jason held the canvas up above his head, showing the picture to the crowd. Indeed, it did loosely resemble a color by number art project: there were many different black lines running across the board, zigzagging this, that, and every which way, forming some rough-looking shapes in some places. In others, you could hardly tell that the black lines were there at all, as all sorts of different colors of paint littered the portrait, densely packed in the middle and then less and less the closer one got to the edges.

Instead of agreeing with him though, the crowd immediately began to boo Jason, hurling insults at him left and right, many of which were too indecent and vulgar to repeat. Some even threatened to beat him to a bloody pulp for daring to insult one of the great Burgh's masterpieces.

Burgh, however, simply shrugged at Jason's criticism. "It's abstract art. It's meant to be experienced differently by different people. What you may see isn't what others may see."

"Yeah!" one man from the crowd shouted, agreeing with Burgh. "It's obviously a picture of shattered glass, and the color is simply a representation of the explosion of force that had caused the glass to shatter!"

"What?" a woman yelled at him. "You've got it all wrong! It's obviously a rainbow, but a broken one, symbolizing everything from destroyed beauty to tarnished hopes and dreams! It's much deeper than simply some stupid piece of glass being broken!"

"No, no, you've both got it wrong," a third man argued. "It's supposed to be a picture of something that just got hit by a bunch of paintballs, and the bad effects vandalism can have on our city. It's a message for all the teenagers out there to stop tarnishing the sides of our buildings with their graffiti."

At this, the crowd erupted into frenzy shouts and accusations amongst themselves, arguing what Burgh's painting was truly a painting of. Burgh, meanwhile, simply gave Jason what he believed to be a smug look, although to him the effect of Burgh's droopy eyes with the smirk made him look high more than anything else. Jason, meanwhile, simply snorted and none too gently threw the picture back onto the easel.

"I think you're all freakin' crazy," Jason mumbled, too quiet for the arguing crowd to hear.

Behind him, Burgh held up his hand, and immediately the roar of the crowd died down, as the man obviously had something he wanted to say.

"I see you're not much of a fan," Burgh remarked, noting Jason's demeanor. Jason snorted.

"I guess you can say that. I'm not really a fan of worthless stuff like art." At this, Jason began to walk away, making sure to head in the direction that would take him around the fountain and away from the mob and the crazy clown painter. "Anyway, I'm outta here. I can't be wasting my time dealing with weirdoes like you guys."

"Hey, watch your mouth!" a third man from the crowd shouted. "You should learn how to respect your elders you little brat, especially when you're talking to a Gym Leader!"

Jason froze in his tracts. Slowly, he turned around to face Burgh again, a questioning look on his face.

"Ah, yes," Burgh said, scratching his cheek and not looking at Jason. "I forgot, I didn't finish my introduction. I'm Burgh, and not only am I a celebrated artist here in Castelia City, but I'm also the Gym Leader here."

Jason blinked, once. Twice. And then he facepalmed.

"Oh Arceus, you've got to be kidding me…"

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, time for some explanations!<strong>

**First of all, this fic shall be a series of short arcs or one-shots, focusing on a couple of characters and their adventures in the universe the story **_**Game Freaks**_** is set in. Obviously, this first arc focuses mainly on Jason and some of the first explorations into the Unova region before Celeste ever came along. Note that these arcs and one-shots do not necessarily go in order of happening; rather, they shall be posted as they are thought up and written, with no regard for keeping them in a timeline whatsoever.**

**Also, the term "crossover" as used in this fic is referring to part of Yasmin's speech to Celeste in chapter four of **_**Game Freaks.**_** Basically, it is the process of going from one world to another, or in other words, crossing over the bridge connecting the two.**

**For those of you reading this and have not yet read **_**Game Freaks**_**, I recommend that you do. It's a nice fic, and a lot funnier than this one could ever hope to be. Plus, if you do want to continue reading these short plots, it might just help to clear up some confusion.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading. Hopefully the second and final chapter of this arc will be up soon, but no promises since I also have two other fics I should be working on, haha.**

**Jason – I'm Just That Awesome**

**Irene – Undercover Badass**

**Adelaide – Mayari Magpa-Kailanman**

**Hanna – duct tape equals love**


	2. To Lands Unknown Part 2

"Oh Arceus, you've got to be kidding me…"

In front of him, Burgh blinked. "Whatever do you mean by that?"

"No. Just…no," Jason mumbled, pushing his hair back with the same hand he had just facepalmed with.

_Seriously? _This_ guy is a Gym Leader?! What, did every other competent person die in this city? Him, a Gym Leader?! He can't even dress like a normal person!_

"I take it from your stunned silence that you're regretting some of your earlier comments?" Burgh asked, flipping some of his curly bangs with his hand. "Don't worry; you wouldn't be the first challenger to make that mistake. I'll still accept your challenge though, so—"

"Who said I was looking to challenge the Gym here?"

Burgh blinked. "Well…" he said, his head tilting slightly as he studied Jason with his droopy eyes. "You're a Trainer, right? So I just thought…"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Jason said, not sounding very sorry at all, "but I didn't even know there was a Gym in this city when I came here. And I don't have any time to waste messing around with a Gym challenge right now."

_And besides, _Jason added in his head, _I'm probably way out of your league. Getting a Gym Badge would be kind of pointless if you already know you're better than the Gym Leader. Although, now that I think about it, I could go for a good battle. Maybe Karl or Ray would be up for one, although I'm not sure when I'll see them again. Hmm… Maybe one of the girls might—_

"—did you come here?" Burgh asked, snapping Jason out of his thoughts.

"Er… What?" Jason asked.

In the crowd surrounding the two guys, one of the spectators threw a half eaten hotdog at Jason's head, shouting something about being respectful and listening when a Gym Leader was talking to him. The hotdog flew well wide of its mark, and ended up slashing into the fountain behind him. Burgh regarded the general area where the hotdog had come from coolly.

"Would whoever threw that please pick it out of the fountain?" he asked. "It's not very nice to clog up our beautiful city attractions with your trash."

In a small area of the crowd from where the projectile had been thrown from, the crowd began mumbling and talking amongst themselves. Then, a man was pushed to the front of the mob. Looking at the Gym Leader, the guy meekly proceeded to walk over to the fountain and fish his soggy hotdog out of the water. He then quickly ran back into the crowd, not wanting to stay out in the open with everyone staring at him any longer than he had to.

"Now then," Burgh said, turning back to Jason, "I was asking you why you came to Castelia if you weren't planning on challenging the Gym. You don't look like the kind of person who would just be here on vacation, and you're certainly not from anywhere around here if you didn't know there was a Gym in one of the biggest cities in Unova. So why did you come here?"

"Oh…" Jason said, his mind beginning to race. What was up with these people and asking him tough questions? First that girl, now this clown. "Well, you see…I was…uh…"

"Mr. Burgh! Mr. Burgh!"

There was movement in the crowd, and a few seconds later a young girl stumbled out of the mob of people accompanied by a chorus of grumbling from a few people she had pushed aside to make her way through.

"Mr. Burgh," she panted again, out of breath. "I've been…looking for you."

The first thought that popped into Jason's head open seeing the girl? _How the heck did she make it through that mob when I couldn't? _The second thought?

"Oh thank God, a distraction."

Too late, Jason clamped a hand over his mouth, realizing he had accidentally spoken out loud in his relief of possibly having gotten out of having to answer Burgh's question. Said Gym Leader glanced over at him at his outburst, raising a single eyebrow in questioning.

"Er, nothing," Jason said, waving his hand dismissively. "Uh, go ahead and see what that girl wants."

The girl, who had been staring at Jason since his outburst, blinked, remembering that she had an important reason for finding the Castelia Gym Leader.

"Mr. Burgh," she said for the fourth time, "there's trouble in Pinwheel Forest! There's a bunch of Whirlipede rolling around and attacking everything they see! They've already knocked down a bunch of trees and sent the forest Pokémon running. I think they might be headed for Skyarrow Bridge!"

Burgh tapped his chin with the pointer finger on his left hand, staring off into space with a thoughtful look on his face. Then, after he had mulled over the problem in his head for a few seconds, he looked back at the girl and said, "So?"

"M-Mr. Burgh?" the girl asked, not understanding his reply.

Burgh shrugged. "I was asking why that was such an emergency. Temperamental Pokémon like Whirlipede naturally rampage in the wild when they are annoyed or are testing their strength, especially this time of year. It is not up to people such as you or me to interfere with the natural course of living beings. Now if they were threatening to damage something or harm someone, I would stop them. But they can't harm Skyarrow Bridge. It's much too strong to take any major damage, and it's more than likely the Whirlipede will calm down after a victor is decided long before they ever reach the bridge. As long as people leave them alone, they'll calm down and retreat into the forest soon enough."

"B-But—"

"Are you stupid or something?" Jason asked, causing a sharp gasp of surprise to reverberate across the crowd as the said teen glared at the Bug-type Gym Leader. "This girl came running up to you because she wanted your help, and you just blow her off, saying that there's no big problem? You didn't even bother to go check out the situation! They could be destroying a bunch of Pokémons' homes in their rampage, or maybe even attack some Trainers who doesn't know any better. To not even bother to get off your lazy butt and go check out the situation is just about the most selfish thing I've ever heard! You don't even deserve to be a Gym Leader if this is the way you treat people in trouble."

Before he had even finished, the crowd began a loud cacophony of boos and jeers, insults flying at Jason. They looked like they had had just about as much of the Agent as they could stand, as the giant mob was shifting uncomfortably close to him, murderous intent in their eyes.

"Oh, would you all just shut up?!" Jason shouted back, completely fed up with the one-sided throng of people. In his mind, they were all a bunch of idiots, just following their precious little druggy Gym Leader and not even bothering to think about the situation themselves. Couldn't they see that there was a real problem going on out there? That girl said that there were rampaging Pokémon near the city! How could they just sit by and ignore that when there were no doubt tons of Trainers milling around out there, some of them probably just ten-year-old beginners who wouldn't know better than to try to catch one of them, and end up getting in big trouble.

"It is not my place to interfere with the natural course of things," Burgh replied. "And it is not yours either. Whirlipede are temperamental Pokémon, yes, but not particularly vengeful. The chances of them harming anyone if left alone is miniscule at best."

"You all make me sick." Jason spat, walking over to the girl who had come to ask Burgh for help. "Where is this Skyarrow Bridge? Like, in which direction?"

"Um… That way," she said, pointing in front of her and a little to the right. Jason nodded.

"What are you doing?" Burgh asked, raising an eyebrow in Jason's direction.

Jason whistled, and his Pelipper, who had been resting on a nearby flagpole attached to one of the skyscrapers, flew over to him. As he began to circle above his Trainer, Jason turned and stared at the Gym Leader.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "I'm going to go stop them."

Then, before anyone could stop him, or for Burgh to even try to convince him that he didn't have to go because it was no big deal or whatever, Jason grabbed hold of his Pelipper's feet and whistled once more. A few short wing beats later, the pelican took to the sky, panting with effort already as he swiftly carried Jason away, shooting down a side street in the direction the girl had pointed, and from there, hopefully towards Skyarrow Bridge.

Burgh sighed as he watched the boy take off recklessly, probably not even knowing what he was getting himself into.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to go make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Burgh said, scratching his head. He then turned and glanced at the girl who had started this whole mess. "Care to lead the way?"

* * *

><p>"Why…the hell…is this bridge…<em>so freakin' long?!<em>" Jason shouted to no one in particular. A couple of joggers ran past him, staring at him like he had gone mad, but he really didn't care. They were crazy for not just attempting to walk, but to _jog_ across the never-ending expanse? That was just plan insanity.

It was a shame Pelipper were so small and bulky compared to some other bird Pokémon. The pelican had managed to get him out of the city, but after a few minutes of flying over Skyarrow Bridge, he had started to drift closer and closer to the overpass, his wing beats becoming ever more laborious. Finally, Jason had told him to land on the walkway for the bridge over the giant, multi-lane highway of cars going in and out of Castelia City.

It was a move he was beginning to regret many times over.

_Why is it that no matter how far I walk, the end never gets any closer?!_ he thought, pausing for a few seconds to catch his breath. He had started out trying to run the length of the bridge, but had quickly tired out. After that, he switched between running and walking, but no matter what he did, the end of the bridge remained firmly out of reach.

It was ridiculous. First he gets lost in a giant city, ditched by the other Agents who were supposed to be helping him. Then he ran into that hippie-artist-slash-Gym-Leader guy with his legion of psychotic followers. And now he was stuck on the never-ending bridge to go stop some Pokémon that were terrorizing some forest that no one seemed to care about enough to stop.

In other words, it was pretty much his typical luck at work.

He needed a way how to get there. Fast. Walking wasn't going to do it, and it wasn't like he could hail a cab all the way out on this bridge going out of the city, which left him with very few options. He couldn't take Pelipper out for another ride either. The bird had already done more than enough work getting him where he was, and asking any more from the Water Bird Pokémon right now wasn't going to get him anywhere. It was a shame too, as he had been traveling at least twice as fast on the bird as he was on foot. But that did give him another idea…

"Screw this…" he mumbled, pulling out a Poké Ball. He had been intending on saving him and his other Pokémon for later, just because he had no idea what those Whirllypede things were, but now… Well, at this rate he'd never get there to figure out what they were and to calm them down. And even though his choice was a bit small, he was his fastest Pokémon, and Jason was confident that if his Pelipper could carry him, his second choice could too.

"Manectric, get out here."

In a burst of light, a large blue-and-golden-furred dog landed on the bridge in front of Jason, his claws making a slight pitter-patter sound on the metal walkway. Lowering himself down onto his haunches, he sat, waiting obediently for his master's orders.

"Alright, listen closely Manectric," Jason said, rubbing the dogs large, cone-like mane. "I need a ride. You think you can get me across this bridge?"

Manectric paused for a moment, before shaking his head, knocking Jason's hand away. He then looked up at his Trainer with an "Are you completely insane?" expression plastered on his face.

"Oh, come on," Jason said, rolling his eyes as he took a step closer to his Pokémon. "Don't be such a little Torchic. I'm not _that _heavy. You could probably do it with one paw tied behind your back with twice as much weight on your back."

Apparently, Manectric didn't agree with Jason's conclusion, as before the teen had even stopped talking the Electric-type had turned tail, trying to get away from his master. Jason wouldn't have it though, as he dove and grabbed hold of the Discharge Pokémon's hind legs as said Pokémon tried to run away, stopping him in his tracks.

Manectric quietly whimpered as Jason dragged him back. He could have easily gotten out of Jason's grasp if he needed to with just a couple thousand volts of electricity from his mane. But this was his master. He couldn't just do shock him silly, even if he really didn't want to follow the orders he had been given. So grudgingly, he let Jason straddle him and hop on his back, nearly crushing him as Jason brought his full weight down on his much smaller frame.

"Alright then," Jason grunted, very uncomfortable perching on his Pokémon's back. "Let's go, Manectric!"

But Manectric refused to budge. Even though he probably could have gone a little ways with his master on his back, chances were that he would injure himself badly in the process, or at the very least exhaust himself. The whole thing was completely ridiculous. He was a Manectric, not a Ponyta or something more suitable for riding. He was not built to hold someone on his back and run at the same time.

But Jason was running out of options. He figured that if he could just get his Pokémon started, the momentum would lessen his weight and Manectric could easily carry him to the end of the bridge. So he urged his Pokémon on.

"Come on, Manectric," Jason cheered, lightly tapping his heels to Manectric's sides to spur the dog on. All it did was cause Manectric to collapse in protest, lying down on the ground with his legs tucked none too comfortably under him.

"Dang," Jason mumbled under his breath. Opting for one last plea to try to spur even a step out of his Pokémon, he lightly started to bounce up and down from his seated position. "Come on, Manectric! I know you can do it if you just get a bit of a run started!"

"Um… Excuse me?"

Jason literally jumped when he heard the voice behind him, and he spun around on the spot, prompting a yelp from the Manectric under him.

Standing there was tall, brown-haired girl who looked to Jason like she was about eighteen or nineteen. She was wearing an outfit that he figured Irene would wear, consisting of a white short skirt, a light green t-shirt, and a simple white wrap around her neck. _Well, maybe not the shirt, but definitely the skirt,_ Jason thought. It was then that he noted that next to her was a pink bike, which he could only assume she had been riding along the road before she had stumbled upon him.

"Uh…hi," Jason said awkwardly, not really sure what else to say.

The girl blushed in response, tugging at the hem of her skirt. "…Hello," she said back, her eyes flashing to the road and looking at the cars go by.

…_Wait a second, _Jason thought, his mind flashing back to the statistician girl who had stopped him earlier. _ Is she…trying to flirt with me or something? I mean, she seems shy and a bit nervous… Usually girls don't act like that unless they like someone, right?_

As these thoughts ran through his head, the girl continued to nervously shuffle her feet, her eyes darting back and forth as she bit her lip. Finally, she blurted out, "Look, can I get through here quickly? I just want to get to Pinwheel Forest without a big commotion, so could you just let past you before you go back to dry humping your Pokémon?"

"…You think I'm doing _what?!_" Jason cried, immediately jumping off of Manectric and skittering away from his Pokémon. "Nononono_no!_ You've got it all wrong!"

"…Yeah, sure." The girl blushed even more and she refused to look him in the eye. "Look, I'm not one to judge, so if you'd just please let me through—"

"I'm serious! Listen, I was just trying to ride my Manectric a little bit—No! Wait! I didn't mean it like that! I was just tired and didn't want to walk anymore, so I called out my Manectric to see if he could give me a bit of a lift the rest of the way, but he couldn't! I swear that's all that we were doing!"

"If you say so," the girl replied, starting to walk around Jason.

But Jason knew that she was probably his last chance to get off of this bridge in a relatively decent amount of time. He had already wasted too much of the stuff as it was. "Wait! Please, wait." Taking a deep breath, Jason ran up to block her path, holding his hands up in front of him in surrender.

The girl took a nervous step back. "I'm warning you, I've got some pepper spray in my pocket and a Petilil that knows Stun Spore…"

"Look, can we just start over?" Jason asked, trying his best to give her a reassuring smile. "Hi, my name is Jason, I'm not gay or a Poképhiliac, and I need to borrow your bike."

* * *

><p>"Now let's see… If I were a couple of rampaging Pokémon, where would I be?" Jason mused. He had finally made it to Pinwheel Forest on the wheels of the pink bicycle he had borrowed from the girl from the bridge faster than he expected. That was a good thing for him, as it had taken quite a bit of convincing to finally persuade the girl to hand over her bike. Even so, he had to give her his PokéNav number (which she had called to make sure it was real), his name, his signature on a scrap piece of paper she had written a brief agreement on, let her take a picture of both the front and the side of his face, about ten thousand Poké Dollars, and almost all of the Berries he had brought with him from Hoenn. It was a hefty price to pay, especially since he had to agree to leave her bike chained at the end of the bridge or else she would report him to the police, and he was beginning to wonder if it was really worth it just to stop a couple of Pokémon from running wild in the woods. But it was his job to help out where he could, and after seeing Skyarrow Bridge and all of the traffic from motor vehicles going to and from the city, he knew that if a couple of rampaging Pokémon found their way onto the bridge, it could spell a bunch of trouble.<p>

And so he found himself wandering around aimlessly in the woods, not quite sure what he was looking for. He didn't even know what those Whirllypede looked like, which made things all that more complicated. But how hard could it be to find a bunch of rioting Pokémon in the woods?

It was only after wandering aimlessly for a few minutes that he noticed it. Unlike the forests he had explored before, such as the Petalburg Woods, Pinwheel was…quiet.

Of course, it wasn't completely silent. Between the wind stirring up the branches in the trees and the different clicks and chirps of the Pokémon who lived there reverberating all around him, Jason could hardly call it noiseless. And yet…the sounds seemed to be subdued compared to other woods he had been in. Yes, the birds chirped, but that was about it. They just chirped. There was no singing, nor the occasional heavy flap of wings as one of them took off to the sky. Even the scurrying clicks and rustles of the bugs seemed to be muffled.

_Well, this is kind of creepy, _Jason thought, glancing around him for the umpteenth time. _Something's definitely up in this forest if it's got all these Pokémon acting like this. It's probably those Whirllypede things, but if they are causing trouble, then wouldn't they—?_

His stream of thought was shattered as a huge, splintering crash resonated from the deeper part of the forest. Jason froze in his tracks. To his right there was a symphony of squawks and chirps as a flock of what looked like pigeons took to the sky at once, flying away from the disturbance.

_Bingo,_ Jason thought, and at once charged straight through the underbrush towards the source of the noise. That had to have been the work of those Whirllypedes. After all, what were the chances that some other Pokémon were out causing another disturbance in the same area?

After a few minutes fighting his way through some particularly pesky thorn-covered plants that tugged at his clothes and scratched up his exposed arms and legs, Jason knew he was close. He had heard some other loud noises as he had been moving through the woods. Most of them he determined to be the sound of snapping wood, with a few other strange noises intermingled. Now that he was closer to the source of the disturbance, he could clearly make out the sounds of a battle, complete with some strange cries he had never heard before. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, he quickly tossed a Poké Ball a few feet in front of him, releasing his Manectric. The wolf appeared in a flash of white light, looking a bit apprehensive at having been called back out.

"Track down the source of that noise," Jason ordered quietly. Manectric's ears twitched once, and he gave his master a bark of partial acknowledgement, partial relief at the orders. Sticking his nose up in the air, it took the Discharge Pokémon about three seconds before he was off, maneuvering his way through the thicket with ease. Begrudgingly, Jason followed, doing his best to skirt around the worst of the thorny brush.

Graciously, he seemed to have already made it past the worst of his trek, as the foliage quickly thinned after he had trudged another hundred yards or so. From there, it was relatively easy to follow the path of his Manectric, and about a minute later the two of them arrived at the battlefield.

To say the place was an absolute mess might be an understatement. Snapped off branches and saplings littered the floor of the forest, which wasn't all that better off either. The ground was marred with more gouges than Jason could count, some of them deep enough that his Manectric could have easily fit inside of them. Even the trees that were still standing were in rough shape, as almost all of them were missing patches of bark near their bases, and a few of them looked like they had been in a few head on collisions with an automobile. And in the middle of all the wreckage, two Pokémon stood at a standoff, glaring at one another.

His first impression: they looked like tires. Very lumpy, colorful tires. With glowing yellow eyes instead of bearings, and complete with multiple spikes lining their outside rims. In all his time living in this freakish world, Jason could honestly say that he had never seen anything like the creatures in front of him.

As if given an invisible signal, the two Whirlipede each gave an ear-shattering, high-pitched screech. Jason and his Manectric both reared back, Jason hastily shoving his hands over his ears and the Discharge Pokémon letting out an involuntary howl as he skittered back.

If the Whirlipede heard the new arrivals, they certainly didn't show it. In fact, they seemed to have only attention for each other, as a second later both Pokémon shot forward, rolling over the uneven ground at a breakneck pace. They crossed the no-man's land in about three seconds flat, barreling head-first into each other with a resounding _bang!_ The blast of force from the collision sent the two Curlipede Pokémon spinning away, both of them carving deep grooves into the earth as they each tried to stop their backwards momentum.

"Guess they aren't the brightest Pokémon ever…" Jason muttered. As he watched, both of the Whirlipede managed to straighten themselves back out again, looking completely unharmed from their clash. In fact, their carapaces looked to be in almost pristine condition, a stark contrast to the destruction around the two Pokémon. Glaring at each other, the two Whilipede both began to spin again, preparing to charge for another head-on collision.

"Oh no you don't!" Jason said, determined now to stop these bugs before they brought any more harm to the area around them. "Manectric, Discharge!"

With a snarl Manectric leapt forward out of the brush and into the battlefield, his mane crackling with pent up electricity. As the two Whilipede closed in on each other, he gave a loud howl, the sparks from his mane erupting into multiple violent bolts of electricity that shot out in every which direction. The attack struck both of the Bug-types, stopping them dead in their tracks as well as adding some new scorch marks to the area around them.

Jason gave a whoop of delight. "Great job Manectric! Now how about we—"

The Whilipede screeched, this time louder than the first. Jason cut his command off abruptly, shielding his ears with his hands from the shrieks. Even Manectric gave a little yelp as he took a few steps back from the noise.

Swiveling in place, the two Bug-types set their sights on Manectric, seemingly having put their differences aside to take care of this new enemy. To Jason's dismay, they seemed more pissed off than anything, the Discharge having done little to no visible damage to the thick-skinned tire wannabes.

"Fire Fang!" Jason called as the screeches began to subside. "Go for the one on the left!"

Barely hearing the order over the ringing in his ears, Manectric nonetheless took off, headed for the Whirlipede on his left. As he ran, his lower jaw began to glow, and in an instant a blaze of fire sparked to life at the corners of his mouth, quickly spreading to encompass his entire jaw.

Seeing the Discharge Pokémon rush towards it, the Whirlipede gave an angry chatter of clicks and shrieks. Not going to just sit there after being threatened, the Curlipede Pokémon did what it did best; it charged Manetric, spinning so fast its red markings were a blur.

Manetric pounced. The Whirlipede gave an ungodly shriek of pain as his jaws clamped down on its carapace, the flames burning its skin. Manetric felt a sense of triumph for about a second. Then his body slammed against the ground by Whirlipede's constant spinning, and an instant later he was literally run over, his body crushed under the rotating form of the Bug-type.

It was too much for Manetric, who involuntarily opened his mouth to gasp, losing his clasp on the bug and letting the Whiripede roll away. Taking a shaky breath, he pulled himself up into a standing position, staring after the Bug-type.

What he wasn't expecting was for the second Whirlipede to plow into him a second later from his left side. With a yelp Manectric was blown backwards by the force of the collision right into a nearby tree.

"Manectric!" Jason yelled. "Hang in there! Try another Fi—"

Before he could even finish his command, the first Whirlipede was back, shrieking wildly as it crashed headlong into Manectric, pinning the dog against the tree. The Electric-type howled in pain. Sensing a knockout, the Whirlipede began to spin, jabbing at Manectric again and again with the multiple poisonous barbs covering its body.

"Discharge!" Jason shouted desperately.

Manectric's eyes snapped open. With a growl, he released another blast of lightening from his mane. It didn't have far to travel, as the electricity arced straight from his dome to the spinning form of the Whirlipede. The Bug-type screeched, backing off from its target as its muscles began to contract from the electrical stimuli.

_This is bad,_ Jason thought as Manectric abruptly cut his attack off, panting. _Manectric can't take much more damage from these Whirllypedes. We've got to—wait, why is it retreating?_

Indeed, as Jason watched the Whirlipede abruptly turned tail and began to quickly roll away from Manectric, speeding away over the uneven ground. Manectric stared after it with a look of suspicion on his face, his muscles tensed in case the Bug-type turned back around to attack again.

_Wait… Where's the second one?!_ With a feeling of dread creeping into his veins, Jason gave the battlefield another quick scan. Sure enough, the second Whirlipede seemed to have disappeared into thin air, nowhere to be seen.

"Manectric, get out of there!" But it was too late. With a squeal the second Whirlipede came barreling in from behind Manectric, closing in on the tree between him and the Electric-type with surprising speed. Instead of going around the tree though, the Curlipede Pokémon jumped straight into it, colliding with the foliage with all the force of a small car. There was a sound like a gunshot as the weakened tree abruptly gave way and snapped, the disembodied trunk falling straight for where Manectric was trying to get away.

But he couldn't. Jason felt his blood run cold when he saw Manectric take a shaky step, then stumble. His front right paw was twisted and bent in a way the appendage was never designed to bend in, no doubt the result of one of the multiple hits he had sustained.

"MANECTRIC!"

"Leavanny, Leaf Storm!"

Jason whirled around just in time to be hit by a blast of wind that almost blew him over. Around him, the trees began to creak and groan as the gust ran through the branches overhead, rustling the leaves and bending the branches back.

An instant later, the air erupted in a flurry of leaves. Not only did the fierce wind forcibly rip them right off the trees, but the vast majority of them came out of the woodwork in a spiraling vortex, each of them covered in a glowing green aura.

_Bang!_

The storm shot through the air in about a second, slamming straight into the falling tree above Manectric. The bark was literally shredded by the spinning leaves as the projectiles cut deep slashes into the sides of the trunk. It wasn't enough to split the falling shaft into pieces, but the force behind the blast of wind and leaves was more than enough to alter the course of the fall, and the tree fell to the ground next to Manectric with a loud crash.

On the forest floor, both Whirlipede stopped in their tracks. They turned to look in the direction the attack came from, cautiously waiting to see what would happen.

"Now String Shot!"

In a flash multiple threads of white webbing shot out from the brush. The Whirlipede cried out in alarm as they turned tail to run, but they were too late. The String Shot wound its way around both of the Bug-types, wrapping them in a layer of the sticky string. The connecting ropes were then pulled taut, preventing the wheel-like Pokémon from rolling away.

There was a laugh from the brush. "Good work, Leavanny!"

Jason's eyes widened as two figures emerged from the trees. The first was a skinny, almost stick figure-like Pokémon made out of folded leaves. In fact, only its head resembled anything like a creature, as it was yellow and round, complete with two kind, red eyes, feelers, and an almost beak-like mouth. It was holding onto the ends of the String Shot cords in its leaf-like hands, making sure the Whirlipede couldn't get away. The second figure was a man. He was dressed in some horrible green and pink clothes, complete with a head of bushy brown hair and a pair of dopy eyes.

Jason had to resist the urge to facepalm.

"You just couldn't leave things alone, could you?" Burgh asked, a smug smile on his face.

* * *

><p><strong>So…yeah. About that updating quickly thing… Well, it obviously didn't happen. Now I could go through a whole list of reasons and excuses as to why I seemingly couldn't finish one stupid chapter, but none of that really matters now. At least I managed to get it up before a year went by though, right?<strong>

**I'm pretty sure that this chapter isn't all that great even with me re-writing it four times or whatever. No doubt it's partially due to the fact that it was written over such a long period of time, but oh well. Hopefully it got better closer to the end and not the other way around since that stuff was written a lot more recently.**

**Anyway, hopefully the next chapter and possibly final chapter in this arc won't take too long for me to finish. Maybe I'll try and aim for getting it up before eleven months have passed instead of twelve. It'd be really great if I could get it up sooner, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.**


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